Fegmaniax Digest Volume 2 Number 23 Today's Topics: ------- ------ IODOT availability? Verb: Object: That Groovy Thing That Groovy Thing He Died On The Phone More CDs GD GD Fifty-Two Stations ROBYN TAPE TREE (Mass Acknowledgment) Gotta Let This Hen Out video 1st Robyn experience Groocy DecAy cover Deirdre O'Donohue interview [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Mon, 28 Mar 94 10:51:28 PST From: Douglas Asherman To: fegmaniax@gnu.ai.mit.edu Subject: IODOT availability? I've been looking for "I Often Dream of Trains" on CD for awhile. Is it out of print? Doug Asherman SF, CA [][][][][][][][][][] Date: 28 Mar 1994 11:32:41 -0800 From: "Partridge John" Subject: Verb: Object: To: "fegmaniax" IMHO, Decay has always been more listenable than Decoy and I've never understood why R. went to so much effort to re-produce Groovy Decay. He said in an interview that at the time he made GD, he was battling a swarm of dwarfs (previously explained as a metaphor for Life's Unresolvable Problems) so maybe he just didn't like the old associations. Decay is a much darker album than his other solo album of that time, Black Snake Diamond Role, but I liked that. America, 52 Stations, The Rain, The Cars She Used to Drive, It was the Night, and Midnight Fish are all fine by me. Here's a topic to munch on: At a SF show at Slim's about four years ago, R. dedicated one of the songs to Graham Chapman who had died the day before. He also remarked that a dream come true for him would have been to be a part of Monty Python (or the Beatles). So, aside from the Eric-the-half-fish reference in Certainly Clickot, has anyone seen any other Monty Python stuff? Anecdote: The first Hitchcock I ever heard was The Man Who Invented Himself in 1981. That started a collector's mania that has not abated since. (It is ugly to watch oneself turn over $40 for an old 7" single which happened to me yesterday.) Anyway, when he went into "retirement" in (or around) '82 I figured that was that. In 1984 I was still in the habit of reflexively flipping through Misc. H at Tower Records (about as fruitful as waiting for the new Joy Division album). To my amazement, IODOT appeared one day and dawn broke. Where is this rambling thing going? In 1987 (I think) he did a solo acoustic gig at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ and played on piano back to back "The Man Who Invented Himself" and "Flavour of Night". Could have knocked me over with a feather. -JP [][][][][][][][][][] Date: 28 Mar 94 13:29:00 EST From: "Mike Brown - ST (EXT 230)" Subject: That Groovy Thing To: "fegmaniax" I called the record store w/ the Groovy DecOy cd. They still have it. They also have an import sticker slapped on EYE (???). I anybody wants it.... Mike. fmd2205.daybe3.daas.dla.mil [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Mon, 28 Mar 94 12:16:15 PST From: ruppen@qal.berkeley.edu (Andy Ruppenstein) To: fegmaniax@gnu.ai.mit.edu Subject: Re: That Groovy Thing Mike writes : >They also have an import sticker slapped on EYE (???). Yeah, last copy of EYE I saw was an import, too. From France. Glass Fish, I believe. Looks a little different from the Twin Tone/US version in that the the parts of the eye that are whiteish on the US disc cover are a bright yellow on the French version. Tracks are the same. I suppose this mean it's currently out of print from Twin Tone (either that, or A&M's dropping Robyn may also have killed Twin Tone's license to distribute that album). Andy / ruppen@qal.berkeley.edu [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Mon, 28 Mar 1994 14:34:08 -0600 (CST) From: AaRrOoNn LlOoWwEe Subject: He Died On The Phone To: -feg:;@gnu.ai.mit.edu Wow. The list has livened up over the past couple of weeks. And finally, today, a digest arrived with some sane and interesting musings on Robyn's music -- a much-needed change from the heckling and verbal abuse of late. I have a few comments of my own to add to throw out there ... I think I can combine a couple of conversation threads into one with this, my first comment: I discovered Robyn Hitchcock in 1988. I was in a local import record store that I had come to frequent, and Gary, the guy who owned the store, and a longtime influence on my CD collection, recommended that I take home an import he'd broken out of the cellophane already at a discounted price. He guaranteed me I'd like it, although he said something like it was a "bit quirky" for him. That CD was Groovy Decoy. The first time I gave Decoy a listen, I was less than impressed. I can't exactly say why; it wasn't horrid or anything, but not much more than background music at any rate. There were a couple of songs that I found sort of catchy, perhaps, but silly, and when I listened to Decoy, I most often programmed in these two or three songs and skipped the rest. Can anyone guess which songs these were? I am sure of two of them and fairly positive about the third. Then, about a year later, I took a road trip with a group of friends, and brought Decoy with me, to share the quirky songs -- I thought they would make good driving music. Little did I know that one of the people on the trip, a gentleman named Michael to whom I owe my very musical sanity, was a prolific collected of Hitchcock tunes. He proceeded to introduce me to other Hitchcock albums, ones that I was more fond of, including those from the Soft Boys era. I fell in love with Robyn's wonderfully imaginative lyrical ingenuity, and above all, his music. Decoy, though, stayed on the shelf for years, until just recently, when I thought, maybe I should give this CD another listen -- I mean, it *is* Hitchcock; it can't be all that terrible after all. Groovy Decoy moved me. 52 Stations. St. Petersburg. Need I say more? True, the album has a sort of unfinished, demo sort of feel to it, but it is now verging on passing Element of Light as my favorite RH album. I can't really say why I had such a low opinion of it before. I listen to it now and think, wow, this is spectacular, but I remember a time when I thought it was hardly worth selling back to the same CD store from which I bought it, hoping to get at least half price for it but expecting less. I also agree that Eye is excellent. Eye and IODOT seem to go hand in hand, sort of melding together in my mind. When I hear a song from one, it invariably reminds me of a song from the other. I have a friend who owns only one Robyn album, IODOT, and it is the pride of his musical collection. He really doesn't express much interest, though, in expanding his RH collection, perhaps in fear that anything else might be a let-down after the euphonic Trains album, which I can certainly understand. It's hard to classify either Eye *or* IODOT as one of my *favorite* RH albums, though, because I feel almost as if they are in a different CLASS of Robyn records. It is hard to compare them with any others -- unless he releases another of the "green and gold" variety. I suppose this shall be enough endless rambling for now. I hope to spark some sort of interesting conversation with my incessant ravings...... Aaron Also -- I would LOVE to find a CD version (or a dubbed cassette copy, for that matter) of Groovy DecAy! If anyone either knows where I can purchase Decay on CD, or has a copy on any medium that they'd be willing to dub (I will provide a cassette or we can arrange some sort of trade), that would be... radiantly good...... Aaron again signing off for real this time **************************** @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ * C. Aaron Lowe | "She the one I love, put her on the stove @ * "An Old Pervert Sitting | She simmer and simmer, all day long @ * Around Under the Bridge" | I cut meat and sing this song." @ * st3cr@jetson.uh edu | --Robyn Hitchcock @ **************************** @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ [][][][][][][][][][] Date: 28 Mar 94 21:42:00 EST From: "Mike Brown - ST (EXT 230)" Subject: More CDs To: "fegmaniax" I stopped at a different record store today and found Black Snake Diamond Role (w/ extra track) Groovy DecOy Invisible Hitchcock each for $13.00. All imports. They also had Element of Light but I'm getting that one for myself. And to my surprise, I found Brenda of the Lightbulb Eyes. I would like to make audio or video trades if any one is interested. Also what is the label number off the HEN video? Mike. fmd2205@daybe3.daas.dla.mil [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Mon, 28 Mar 1994 20:07:10 -0700 (MST) From: BRUCE%TOYVAX@arizona.edu Subject: GD To: fegmaniax@gnu.ai.mit.edu I would like to dive in to defend Groovy Decoy.. sorry to bore everybody but the first sone ( 52 Stations ) just happened to be about the hole I was living in at the time ( like a mirror on a wall ) . Some weak points but the Bowiesque sounding ' When I Was A Kid ' is one of my favs ... shere madcap with nice keyboard noise. bh [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Tue, 29 Mar 94 11:17 BST From: andyh@cogs.susx.ac.uk (Andy Holyer) To: BRUCE%TOYVAX@arizona.edu Subject: Re: GD Cc: fegmaniax@gnu.ai.mit.edu > > I would like to dive in to defend Groovy Decoy.. sorry to bore everybody > but the first sone ( 52 Stations ) just happened to be about the hole I was > living in at the time ( like a mirror on a wall ) . What, Crouch End? :-) I'm sure I've said this before, but have you ever counted how many stations there *are* on the Northern Line? [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Tue, 29 Mar 1994 05:20:45 -0600 (CST) From: GOOSENMK@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu Subject: Fifty-Two Stations To: fegmaniax@gnu.ai.mit.edu to ANDY@COGS.SUSX.AC.UK : Of course, the first thing I did upon boarding the Underground at Clapham Common on my initial visit to London in 1987 was to count the stations on the Northern Line--I came up with fifty-two, so Robyn was right... Just one of many Hitchcock songs I couldn't get out of my head while in the U.K.--of course, "Trams of Old London" (I cry every time I play this one) and "I Often Dream of Trains" were two others... Later, Miles Goosens [][][][][][][][][][] To: fegmaniax@gnu.ai.mit.edu Subject: ROBYN TAPE TREE (Mass Acknowledgment) Date: Tue, 29 Mar 1994 07:29:05 EST From: Thomas Narten The tree is rolling along. I've got three other DAT folks out there who will be making top level dubs. I'm working on getting them tapes and will hopefully post the completed tree in a week or so. I've appended the list of folks that have signed up for the tree (all 72 of you). If you are not on the list, but want to be, please fill out the form and return it to me. Originally, I had planned on putting the covers (50 minutes) on the same tape with the WHFS "robyn playing his favorite songs" tape. Unfortunately, the tape lengths don't work out. I am now planning on just using the covers tape and adding some filler I have. The WHFS dub is nothing to get excited about (IMHO). Robyn says very little in between songs, so it's not like there are any nice little quotes or insights to his thinking. If folks really want this tape, let me know. Thomas ================Clip Here================ Name: email: USmail: US Phone: Dolby Preference: Can you clone tapes: Your dubbing setup: ================End Entry Form================ Here is the list of folks already signed up. If you are on the list, you're all set; just wait for the final tree posting. "Mark Gloster" 7236@ef.gc.maricopa.edu BSkinner@cudnvr.denver.colorado.edu Erskine007@aol.com (Erskine Wood) JH4828A@american.edu Jennie_Bolton@ccgate2.afsc.noaa.gov MCA_DSS@flo.org Martinp@cgsvax.claremont.edu P.COHEN@GENIE.GEIS.COM Swedenem@wehle.canisius.edu TCARLSTO@DREW.DREW.EDU a1fferguson@lucy.wellesley.edu adavidwright@eworld.com andyh@cogs.susx.ac.uk anw@ns.ph.liv.ac.uk ayre@sunburn.eng.usf.edu bayard@unix1.circ.gwu.edu bj835@cleveland.freenet.edu (Tim Connors) bruce%toyvax@arizona.edu bryan@fegmania.wustl.edu christine.gazak@m.cc.utah.edu cinn@freenet.scri.fsu.edu daramsey@vaxsar.vassar.edu doug@ac.wfunet.wfu.edu dweezil@orl.mmc.com ek1i+@andrew.cmu.edu esinclai@indiana.edu espen@dartmouth.edu fmd2205@daybe3.daas.dla.mil fred_m_hamilton@cup.portal.com gokhman@ringer.cs.utsa.edu goosenmk@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu isinger@ocf.berkeley.edu ja3n@andrew.cmu.edu jackd@mail.telport.com jneil@echonyc.com johnj@access.digex.net jturner@rpms.ac.uk levidow@ils.nwu.edu librik@cs.Berkeley.edu lj@panix.com llje@utxdp.dp.utexas.edu lmccorm@gibbs.oit.unc.edu mad5c@uvacs.cs.virginia.edu majk@lotatg.lotus.com (Mike Decoteau) mcintyre@msupa.pa.msu.edu mrd@world.std.com mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu mvalenta@eagle.ibc.edu mwolfe@macalstr.edu narten@cs.albany.edu otg@csi.compuserve.com partridge_john@gsb.stanford.edu pearceja@wl.wpafb.af.mil rcj@umich.edu rjyanco@unix.amherst.edu robertz919@aol.com robin@uga.cc.uga.edu roy@sequoia.wpi.edu rp6123a@american.edu rsood@hardy.u.washington.edu ruppen@qal.berkeley.edu skog0013@gold.tc.umn.edu srswart@aol.com st3cr@jetson.uh.edu stame@emunix.emich.edu swood1@drew.drew.edu thiel@cdsp.neu.edu vail@world.std.com vince@mpd.tandem.com wanal@vax.rhodes.edu witzany@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu woj@remus.rutgers.edu [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Wed, 30 Mar 94 10:03:20 CDT From: Andrew McDonald Subject: Gotta Let This Hen Out video To: fegmaniax@gnu.ai.mit.edu Someone (I accidentally deleted the message) asked recently about the label no. for the GLTHO video. It is: Jettisoundz Ltd. JE 139. (Their address is listed as P.O. Box 30, Lytham St. Annes, Lanc., FY8 3UH) For all I know their may be other distributors, but I kind of doubt it. Over the weekend I came across a Queen Elvis era A&M lp whose label said it was an interview by Deirdre Someone of some station in Santa Monica for a show called Snap or something. Before I pay $20 to sate my curiousity, can anyone tell me what this is? Thanks, Andrew McDonald [][][][][][][][][][] From: otv00010@llpptn.ll.pbs.org (Hilary Caws-Elwitt) Subject: 1st Robyn experience To: fegmaniax@gnu.ai.mit.edu Date: Wed, 30 Mar 1994 07:58:41 -0500 (EST) The first Hitchcock song I ever heard was "The Cars She Used to Drive," on the NYU radio station, in early 1982 (I had just turned 17). I had recently gotten into "alternative" music, which at that time was known as "New Wave" (remember?) I loved it, as I loved many of the British dance-y/novelty-ish tracks on the NYU playlist--"Look, Know" by the Fall, "Language Problems" by Electric Guitars, and both "It Goes Waap!" and "Conspiracy" by, yes, the Higsons! (I still like all those songs....) Anyway, I went out and bought _Groovy Decay_ and was blown away by the melancholy sincerity and beauty of the other tracks, not the musical experience I was expecting. Plus I loved the cover! Those of you who only know _Groovy Decoy_ are missing classic young Robyn: holding a cigarette, long sideburns, sitting at a table decorated with a skull in sunglasses, a bottle of Chianti w/candle, a wineglass, and an assortment of fruit. A skeleton stands in the background. On the back cover (b&w) he's just been eating an apple and his grimacing face is buried in the other hand (I always thought he was laughing, but now I see he could be crying or spitting out a piece of poisoned apple). On the front cover, in the very foreground, is something organic and wet (liver? a peeled, decayed papaya?) Anyway, I still love the original. I always liked Sara Lee's bass (she was in League of Gentlemen, too), and that early Robyn solo stuff has the intimacy of the later acoustic material with the extra energy of a full band. Besides, it's so wrapped in nostalgia for me... @ On another channel, I wonder if Robyn is familar with the French writer Boris Vian. (_L'ecume des jours_ was his most famous book, translated as _Froth on the Daydream_ or as _Mood Indigo_). He has that same obsession with the organic and surreal (in E des J the lead woman dies of a water lily growing in her lungs, eels live in the plumbing, apartments grow stalactites), which is used not only humorously but ultimately in a moving and meaningful way. If you like that aspect of Robyn's work, you might like the book (although I don't know how good the translations are). @ Hilary hicael@llpptn.ll.pbs.org  [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Wed, 30 Mar 94 09:40:02 PST From: lroberts@bellahs.com (Laurence Roberts RD) To: fegmaniax@gnu.ai.mit.edu Subject: Groocy DecAy cover The "skull, suitcase, and long red bottle of wine" cover photo on Groovy DecAy is a re-creation of a scene in The Bride of Frankenstein. Larry-bob lroberts@bellahs.com [][][][][][][][][][] Date: Wed, 30 Mar 1994 12:09:10 -0600 To: fegmaniax@gnu.ai.mit.edu From: gene@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu (Gene Hopstetter) Subject: Deirdre O'Donohue interview >Over the weekend I came across a Queen Elvis era A&M lp whose label said >it was an interview by Deirdre Someone of some station in Santa Monica for a >show called Snap or something. Before I pay $20 to sate my curiousity, can >anyone tell me what this is? Good, is what it is. And very, very collectable. It's a very good, in-depth interview of Robyn -- he offers much insight into his songwriting process, and his mind in particular. One of the best Robyn interviews around, IMHO. Never gets dull or boring. I'd buy it. "Got a penthouse full of dwarfs..." =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ Gene Hopstetter, Jr. + gene@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu Writer/Layout/WWW Guy + Tulane Computing Services =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ "Give me some more terminology!" -- Slovenly [][][][][][][][] End of this Fegmaniax Digest. Archives can be found on fegmania.wustl.edu:/fegmaniax and ftp.uwp.edu:/pub/music/lists/fegmaniax. For administrative questions, subscription requests, and all that boring crud, send mail to fegmaniax-request@gnu.ai.mit.edu. Slipping you the midnight fish...